Plum cake with lime (Sponge cake)

I don’t know about you, but I’m always more comfortable when I know there’s something sweet waiting for me on the counter.

So, today I’m sharing with you a simple recipe to make a soft plum cake. Don’t let yourselves fooled by the name. There is no plum inside. I have no idea why Italians call this cake like this and Google wasn’t of too much help on this matter. In a nutshell, it’s something like a “sponge cake”, very soft and with a slight citrus flavor. This time I’ve used lime juice to give it a fresh and delicate perfume, but you can use either lemon or even orange.

Italians have plum cake for breakfast, but I enjoy it any time of the day, especially when I feel like spoiling myself a little. My family eats it just the way it is or even with a soft touch of berry jam or Nutella.

I find it not only delicious, but also helpful, especially when I have kids visiting. You know, it’s always better to have a homemade treat for children, instead of a bunch of potato chips.

Good to know:

To make the composition for this cake, you need to start from eggs, so make sure you don’t lose too much air during the process. I’ve tried to take a shot to help you get a better idea about how your mixture should look like.

You can substitute some of the ingredients if you feel like. However, for the cake to rise in the oven, you must maintain the proportions between dry and wet ingredients.

If you substitute oil with butter, there is a high chance your cake to be a bit dry.

Enjoy! Ciao.

Ingredients

Sugar - 300 grams

Eggs - 4

Yolks - 5

Lemon juice - 50 ml

Salt - 2 grams

Baking powder - 10 grams

Flour - 160 grams

Potato flour - 140 grams

Olive oil - 35 ml

Sunflower oil - 75 ml

Directions

1First step, eggs. I prefer to mix eggs with yolks to obtain a more aerated cake. However, you can use eggs only, in which case you should have 300 grams of them (about 5-6 eggs).

2Using a stand mixer or an electric whisk, beat the eggs with the sugar until you obtain an aerated cream. It's better using the low speed, because it helps the cream incorporate more air.

3Add slowly the lime juice into the whipped eggs, while the mixer is still on.

4Once you’ve added all the juice, remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Try to do this as slow as possible, to maintain the consistency of the cream inside.

5Preheat the oven at 180°C (356°F).

6Make a mix of all the dry ingredients (flour, potato flour, baking powder, and salt). You should add them in the egg cream in small quantities, stirring gently with a spatula. Sift dry ingredients to avoid lumps.

7When you’ve incorporated about half of the flours, you add the oils slowly, always stirring with the spatula. All movements should be gentle, going slowly from the bottom towards the top, to avoid losing too much air from the mixture.

8When both oils are incorporated, fold in the rest of the flours, in small quantities.

9Move the composition into a greased loaf tin to obtain a traditional plum cake. I’ve used two different baking forms, just to give them a different look. And to add some small cubes of chocolate in one of the cakes. Remember that the mixture is supposed to raise so don’t fill the tin completely.

10Bake it for at least 25 minutes. I insert a skewer into the middle of the cake to see if it’s done. If it comes out clean, it’s time to remove the cake from oven.